Data on the current position, service meter, fuel quantity, and engine r.p.m. and the like for mobile bodies, particularly construction machines, constitute necessary information for managing vehicles.
In terms of methods for acquiring information relating to these construction machines, conventionally, maintenance personnel have made visits to the construction machine and made visual confirmation, or, alternatively, historical data written to a memory inside the construction machine has been downloaded by connecting a personal computer to the construction machine. Then, by storing the data collected from a plurality of construction machines in the memory of a computer at a managing station, pluralities of construction machines have been managed.
However, because the collection of information is done by hand, the greater the number of construction machines involved and the more remote the work site becomes, the more complex and troublesome the collection of information becomes and information collection operations are severely hampered.
Thereupon, as may be seen in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-330539 (published), and elsewhere, attempts have been made to automatically acquire information on construction machines, using communication means, without depending on human intervention.
The invention described in the publication cited above is one wherewith a managing unit and construction machines are connected between by communication means so as to facilitate bidirectional communications, whereupon data requests are transmitted from the managing unit and, at the construction machines, data are extracted and sent back to the managing unit.
Thus information on the construction machines are merely collected in the requesting managing unit, wherefore information on the construction machines can only be obtained by a managing unit.
However, the humans concerned with the construction machines are not limited to a manager in a managing unit, but also include maintenance personnel (service persons), sales personnel, and various other people, and the information required by them, respectively, differs. Furthermore, these maintenance personnel and the like will often be at locations at some distance from the managing unit.
Therefore, in order to pass required information from the managing unit to maintenance personnel and the like, it is necessary to extract the information needed by each person, process it, and then pass it to the person by separate communication means or human intervention. Hence work efficiency associated with the transmission of information suffers greatly.
In the publication cited above, an invention is described wherewith, in cases where a service person is at a location removed some distance from the managing unit, a data request is transmitted using a customer's computer at the place being visited, and data are extracted at the construction machine and sent back to that customer's computer.
Accordingly, in this case, service personnel removed some distance from the managing unit can themselves acquire needed information.
However, when managing construction machines, there will often be situations where the service personnel or the like are unable themselves to effect an input operation to request information. An example of such a situation would be one where the service person is performing some other job or the like and is unable to perform an input operation. Another example of such a situation would be one wherein, although there is a terminal device capable of requesting information located in a vehicle, the transport operator who is driving that vehicle cannot himself or herself effect an input operation.
When managing construction machines, moreover, the information request originator and the information provider will often be different. An example of such a case would be where a service person, after making a maintenance inspection (such as replenishing the oil, for example), makes a request to the construction machine for data on the oil level, and wishes to make the presentation recipient for that information also a terminal device available to a manager at a site which is remote from the service person. Another example would be a case where, conversely, a manager makes a request to a construction machine for its current position and data relating to malfunctions or other anomalies, and wishes to make the presentation recipient for that information a terminal device available to a service person at a site which is remote from the manager.
Yet another example would be a case where a manger makes a request to a construction machine for data on its current position, and wishes to make the presentation recipient for that information also a terminal device available to a transportation operator who is driving a transport vehicle to transport that construction machine.
Cases like this where the person who wishes to obtain information is unable to effect an input operation, and cases where the information request originator and information presentation recipient are different, cannot be coped with by the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-330539 published) cited above.
An object of a first invention of the present invention, which was devised in view of the situation described in the foregoing, is to make it possible, even in cases where the person wishing to obtain information is unable to effect an input operation, and in cases where the information request originator and information presentation recipient are different, to efficiently send the information required by that presentation recipient person, from the request originator to the presentation recipient.
Based on the invention described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-330539 (published), cited above, moreover, information on a construction machine requested from a managing unit is merely collected at that managing unit. Information on a construction machine requested by a customer's computer or by another managing unit is also merely collected in that customer's computer or other managing unit.
Accordingly, with the prior art, it is not possible, using any desired terminal device, to acquire various kinds of information on a plurality of construction machines requested from a plurality of request originators.
There is now a demand to be able to manage, in a unified manner, all information on a plurality of construction machines by any desired terminal device. Based on the invention described in the publication cited above, however, that demand cannot be met.
An object of a second invention of the present invention, which was devised in view of the situation described in the foregoing, is to make it possible to manage information on a plurality of mobile bodies by any desired terminal device.
Meanwhile, the internet has come into wide use in recent years, and the sending and receiving of data using an electronic mail service on the internet is conceivable. In such a case, the server terminal that is the mail server checks for the presence of electronic mail in a mail box at a regular period. For this reason there is a certain delay from the time electronic mail is sent by a terminal in a managing unit until the time that mail is actually received by a construction machine at the mail address location.
It is also conceivable to send and receive data by satellite radio communications via a communication satellite. With satellite radio communications, a communication link cannot be secured when the communications environment between the transmitter and receiver is poor, wherefore processing is performed to try to effect communications some number of times. For that reason, there are delays caused by the communications environment from the time a data request signal is transmitted from a communication satellite and the time it is actually received by the construction machine.
Thus, in communication systems that employ the internet or satellite radio communications, time differences of a number of minutes, for example, occur between the time a data request signal is transmitted by a request originator terminal and the time that signal is received by the request recipient construction machine and responded to. In a communication system exhibiting such poor real time performance as this, there is a danger that the operator of the request originator terminal will suffer from anxiety due to the uncertainty of communication status, and that work efficiency will be affected. There is also a danger that data request signals of duplicate content will be retransmitted, due to the uncertainty of communication status, affecting communication costs.
Accordingly, it is desirable that the conditions of communication with the construction machines be displayed on a display screen of a terminal so as to avoid both deterioration in work efficiency caused by communication condition uncertainties and increases in communication costs.
Furthermore, in cases where data request signals are sent from a plurality of terminals to one construction machine, how recent the information relating to the construction machine currently captured on the display screen of some terminal is (i.e. when and from which terminal it was requested) cannot be determined from the display screen of that one terminal alone.
Accordingly, it is desirable that a display be made on the terminal display screen as to how much time has elapsed since the last request was made to the construction machine, and that the operator be informed of construction machine managing information as to how recent the information currently captured is.
Thereupon, an object of a fourth invention is to prevent declines in work efficiency and increases in communication costs arising from communication condition uncertainty. Another object is to make provision so that management information as to how recent mobile body information on mobile bodies is can be obtained from a display screen.
Now, when the number of construction machines to be managed increases, the amount of information displayed on the display screen of a terminal becomes enormous. When critical information contained in that enormous amount of information is not noticed, or the discovery thereof is delayed, the manager at his or her end can no longer promptly make decisions or take corrective action when an abnormal situation arises. That being so, an object of a seventh invention is to inform the manager at his or her end only of critical information out of the enormous amount of information, and enable the manager at his or her end to promptly make decisions and take corrective action when an abnormal situation occurs.